SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

TRAVELS,

Cabool: being a Personal Narrative of a Journey to and Residence in that City, in the years 1836,37, and '38. With numerous illustrations. By the late Lieutenant- Colonel SirAlexander Barnes, C.B.,&c., of the India Company's Service; Author of" Travels into Bokhara." Murray. Smmertcs, The True State of the National Finances, with Remedial Suggestions. By Samuel Wells, Esq., Barrister at.I.aw Simpkin and Marshall. Pommy, Laudate Pueri Dominum. Hymns for My Children. By T. H., Esq Dolma*.

SIR ALEXANDER BURNES'S CABOOL.

Barron the obvious attraction of this posthumous but prepared publication, from the untimely death of its lamented author, and the doubt as to how far be approved of the policy to the further- ance of which he fell a sacrifice, a more homely and touching inte- rest pervades the work, in the conscious security, not to say triumph, with which it was written, compared with the fatal catastrophe impending over him. The dedication to his father, the preface, and many parts of the book itself, exhibit a felt security : but per- haps the passages of strongest contrast are the lively descriptions of the gay and friendly intercourse with his acquaintances at Cabool and its neighbourhood, among whom, in a few short years, and in a moment of full reliance, he met his violent end.

The present volume narrates the personal adventures of Sir ALEXANDER in his journey to Cabool, and his residence in that city during the years 1836, '37, and '38, when he went thither at the head of a political mission, each member of which was en- gaged, by the orders of Government or the enterprise of their chief, in making observations upon the nature of the country, its pro- ductions, or inhabitants. Lieutenant WOOD took a very accurate survey of the Indus ; and, an opportunity occurring, through the illness of MORAD BEG'S brother, BURNES despatched him to the sources of the Oxus ; of which journey he has published a sepa- rate account. On the same occasion, he sent Dr. LORD, the medi- cal attendant of the mission, to the country of Koondooz, in order to examine it : and it incidentally appears with what activity BURNES availed himself of events, or the political anxiety of rulers, to despatch native agents into new paths, or little-known regions, to collect scientific information as well as news. Personally more confined to one position, BURNES availed himself of every opportunity to ex- tract knowledge from intelligent natives ; and whilst his political labours are embraced in his public despatches and reports, this volume contains a narrative of his journey and its incidents, the many different characters he encountered, the singular customs and domestic habits of the little-known peoples inhabiting the Himalayan range and table-lands of Tartary, with scattered notices of statistics and descriptions of scenery. A variety of appendices are added to the text : consisting of a Report by &Faxes for the establishment of an entrepot or fair on the banks of the Indus, for facilitating trade with Central Asia ; Notes on Cabool, in which the author exhibits the results of his experience of the country and of DOST MABOMED, instead of the particular observations on which they were founded ; and a translation of a curious treatise on Eastern Physiognomy ; besides some vocabu- laries, with scientific papers by Dr. LORD, on the Wild Sheep and Goats of Cabool, and by Lieutenant WOOD on the Navigation of the Indus.

The route of the mission was up the Indus to Attock ; frequent excursions, however, being made by land, and visits paid to every place or person of note. From Attock they proceeded through the Khyber Pass to Cabool; in the neighbourhood of which several trips were made by BURNE,S ; whilst Dr. Loan and Lieu- tenant WOOD, by the tact of their chief, were enabled to pene- trate among a tribe of the Uzbecks. The charm of the book is not, however, in its route, which BURNES had formerly passed over, and parts of which have since been traversed by armies, but in its buoyant style, and its picture of Oriental manners. In both of these qualities, we think it surpasses his former more extensive and ambitious work, in which he narrated his travels into coun- tries whose discovery, as it were, was to be fatal to himself, and his success to conduct him to the tomb. In the way of solid information, the matter is less valuable and less new ; but personal character, domestic scenes, and Oriental manners, are painted with more vivacity, ease, and lightness of touch. The increased experience of the writer is visible, not so much in the mere err scribendi, as in his mastery of the subject he is writing upon : he is not merely capable of reporting what is said, but of bearing a part himself in native conversation : and his lamented coadjutor Dr. LORD, who fell before him in the field, has something of the same power. The fearful uncertainty of human life may be re- marked, too, as an under-current indication of the state of society : violent death, or rather murder, is a more frequent notification of the end of the writer's friends than the debt of nature in Europe. In noting what is the chief characteristic of the volume, it must not be inferred that there is ao solid information; for there is some geographical and antiquarian, and a good deal of a practical kind. As this, however, is worth seeking in the volume by those who want it, we shall take our extracts from the more amusing class. Here, to begin with, is what seems not uncommon in the East—

AN EUROPEAN ADVENTURER.

At Bhawlpoor we heard of an European being in a caravanserai, and im- mediately sent him an invitation to join us. lie proved to be Monsieur Benoir Argoud, Capitaine d'Infanterie, who had arrived here from Lahore : he vi as a red- hot Republican ; and after we had risen from table, the good things of which had a little overtaken him, continued half the night shouting out " Liberty ! Equality! and Saint Simonianism !" Early the next morning he broke into my apartment and exclaimed, "that it was seven o'clock, and that I must in- stantly rise, as the battle of Wagmm had been fought, and his father killed at it, before that hour!" To crown all, Monsieur announced himself to be et route for Cabool to join float Mahomed Khan and constrain him to raise the green shirt of the Prophet, and attack these canaille the Sikhs; being deter- mined, as a preliminary part of his plan, to plant potatoes for the subsistence of the troops. We concluded Monsieur to be mad ; but, as Fanny Kemble says of the Americans, "it might be otherwise "; and the question of "Row corned you so ? " would in this instance also have led to the explanation of the whole affair. Monsieur Argond, too, had method in his madness; for he made out his journey safely to Cabool by the Bolan Pass and Candahar--not a very easy thing ; and afterwards, when I had the honour of again meeting him, he told me that he had "saved himself from death, with the sword over his head!" by ejaculating the Mahomedan " Kuluma," or creed, of there being but one God and that Mahomed was his prophet.

AFGHAN ALCHEMY.

One of the first applications which we received was from the Nawab ; who requested to supply him with some platina wire, to aid his studies in alchemy. I took the occasion to inquire into the state of the science, which has always been in such high favour among the Afghans; and was forthwith made ac- quainted with several ways of making gold, by which the adepts trick their credulous employers. One of these is by secretly introducing some gold inside the charcoal ; and after the quicksilver has been evaporated, the more precious metal is left to delight the wiseacre, and to tempt him on to further expenses. Another method is to put the filings of gold into a stick or pipe, and fasten the end with wax ; with this rod the materials in the crucible are stirred, and the desired result obtained.

PERSIAN SWORDS.

Some very fine blades were sent to us for our inspection by a decayed widow lady, whose husband had been one of the former Dooranee lords. One of these scimitars was valued at five thousand rupees, and the other two at fifteen hun- dred each. The first of these was an Ispahan sword, made by one Zeman, the pupil of Asad, and a slave of Abbas the Great. It was formed of what is called Akbaree steel," and had belonged to Ghoolam Shah Calora of Sinde,, whose name wag upon it, and was brought from that country during the wars of Mndad Khan. The especial cause of its great value was that the water could be traced upon it, like a skein of silk down the entire length of the blade. Had this watering been interruptedby a curve or cross, the sword would have been comparatively valueless. The second was also a Persian sword of the water called " Begumee." The lines did not run down straight, but waved like a watered silk fabric. It had the name of Nadir Shah on it. The third was what is termed a " Kara" (black) Khorasan blade, of the water named " Bidr," and came from Casveen. There were neither straight nor waving lines in it, but it was mottled with dark spots. All these swords were light and well-balanced ; the most valuable one was the most curved ; the steel in all the three tingled like a bell, and is said to improve by age. One test of the genuineness of a sword is that it can be written upon with gold ; others, more certain are its cutting through a large bone, and severing a silk handker- chief when ;brown into the air.

AFGHAN IRRIGATION.

Immediately on crossing the river of Ghoorbund, we entered Kohistare Proper, a country rich without parallel. It is of no great extent, its form being that of the segment of a circle, the length of which is about sixteen or eighteen miles, and five or six its greatest depth. The fertility and produc- tiveness of the soil is equalled by the industry of the people, who, forming bank above bank, acquire, as it were, land from their stony hills, all of which they irrigate with a care and zeal greatly to be admired. Aqueducts may be often seen fifty and sixty feet up the hill, conducted round every swell and valley, till at last they pour out their contents on the embanked fields. Irriga- tion from natural rivulets is of course more economical than by canals or sub- terraneous water-courses. Near Chareekar, there are some magnificent arti- ficial canals, which, according to the people, are as old as the days of Timour. The canals are either dug by the government, or the villagers make common, cause. If the former, the revenue derived is considerable ; one hundred rupees per annum being charged for every place through which the supply passes. In some parts of the country the water, after being conducted, is made free pro- perty; In others it is carefully distributed and sold. A cut from a canal ten fingers broad and five deep is sufficient to irrigate eight khurwars of grain. Much abuse, however, attends the subdivision ot the water, and the owners of lands at the lower extremity of a canal are often obliged to watch over the pro- ceedings of those who live higher up, and even to bribe them not to damage their fields by stopping the supply ; nay, battles are sometimes fought for the water. For one night's supply to a crop of twenty khurwars, from fifty to a hundred rupees are sometimes given.

GARDEN-RENT NEAR CABOOL.

The best soil in the district of Cabool is at Deli Afghanee a village in the suburbs; where a jureeb of land, or half an English acre, produces a rest of ten tomsuns, or two hundred rupees, and yields, besides the profits of the pro- prietor, a revenue as high as forty rupees to Government ; but this is ground on which vegetables are reared, the sale of which is highly advantageous ; for the Afghans preserve cabbages, carrots, and turnips, as we do potatoes, placing them on the ground, with :little earth over them and leaves, so that they are thus kept fresh till ApriL

A MAHOMEDAN ON GEOLOGY.

Our geological and other similar researches in Kohistan naturally led to our being questioned as to the particular objects of our pursuit. "We are seek- ing," said I to a Mahomedan, "for the organic remains of a former world." After ascertaining from me that Christians and Mabomedans agreed on the subject of the Deluge, he observed that "when Mahomed was asked what- existed before the world, he answered, the world ; and he repeated the same- answer seven times. I can therefore," continued the Moslem " well under- stand the motives of your search." Another individual with Whom I fell into- the same conversation, observed, " We do not even know ourselves; what cam we know, therefore, of the past and present world?" The remark, however,. of my first acquaintance will serve to show that it probably will not be a diffi- cult task to explain to the Moslem the mysteries which geologists have of late years so successfully unravelled.

ROYAL ALLIANCE.

Not far from our residence in the Bala Ilissar lived Sy-nd Mohsun, a man of some influence among the Huzaras, who used frequently to visit us, and tell us strange stories of that simple people. The unexpected honour of marrying a princess, and becoming brother-in-law of the Ameer of Calve', had fallen upon him. float Mahomed, after be had allied himself to the family of Shah. Zada Ablas, was afraid lest his wife's sister should marry any of his nobles,. and determined that the lady should be united to a holy man. He accordingly sent for the Syud to his harem, whither he had already summoned the Cazee, and without previously informing either party, forthwith proceeded to join them in holy wedlock. The Syud at first refused, and declared that the honour was too great. This objection the Anneer removed by assuring him "that his fortune bad predominated." "But," insisted the involuntary bridegroom, "I am a poor man and cannot afford to clothe a princess." "Never maul, never mind," replied man, Mahomed, "I will do that for you "; and married they accordingly were. And now the Spud, sorrowfully declares that he is not master of his own house. Two slave-girls from the Hamra country attend, this fair scion of royalty ; and the poor man declares that he himself is but an upper servant. Such marriages are common in these countries; since Syuds and other ministers of religion, when allied to females of royal blood, can do less political harm than other persons. At all events, there was not much regal dignity in some of the occupations of Synd Mohsun and his illustrious wife; seeing that they prepared the beat jelly which I tasted in Cabool, made from the sour cherry, or gean.

EVADING OFFICE.

On my return I had a visit from an acquaintance, Moollah Khodadad, who had been absent from the city for a short time settling the harvest-revenue. Be amused me by recounting the mode he had adopted to escape from being the political representative of Dost Mahomed Khan; an honour for which he bad been singled out in consequence of his great abilities. It seems that, after the last battle with the Sikhs, Kooshal Sing, one of their officers, addressed the Ameer, suggesting the propriety of his sending a man of rank and knowledge to Peshawur to adjust their differences ; and Khodadad was the fortunate wigbt selected, he not being in Dost Mahomed's service, nor knowing any thing about it. A. whisper reached him; he repaired to the Bala Hisser; and the friend who sat next him told him, in Afgbanee, "that they had prepared a pannier (knjawa) for him,"—meaning that he was to be sent on a journey. Dost Mahomed conversed at large on what ought to be done; and at leng-th, looking to the Moonlit; but without making any allusion to his having been fixed upon as his representative, said that some proper person should be sent. You look towards me," said the wary Moollab ; "shall I say what I think ?" "Certainly." " Well, then," said Khodadad, "you have received a letter, and for it you propose to send an Elchee : a reply to a letter should be a letter : besides, if any one is sent to Peshawar, the people will look upon it as spring- ing from fear." Some of the courtiers loudly reprobated these arguments, de- claring that they were founded in ignorance. "How many jars of water are in the fountain before you ? " asked Khodadad. The courtiers all declared they did not know. "But I do," said the Moollah. The Ameer desired him to state how many there were. "That, my lord," he replied, "entirely de- pends on the size of the jar employed to measure it." This indirect allusion to the want of comprehension in his associates amused the Ameer and nettled them. The discussion was broken off, and the deputation to the Sikh camp post- poned sine die. It was only a few months after he had got out of this dilemma, that the Moollah was actually nominated as Elchee to proceed to the court of Moored Beg of Koondooz. "Look at my fortune," said he, with facetious gravity, as he tald me the story ; "first they were going to send me to a Hin- doo, and then to a robber : to make up for it, however, they styled me in my credentials • of high rank, great fame, place, wealth,' and Heaven knows what. Well, I thought I could make something of all this; so I went once more to the Bala Hisser to converse with the Ameer. I observed to him, that if such titles and rank and glory were assigned to me, I had better be provided with equipages, attendants, and rich clothing, suitable for so great a man ; for as to myself, I had none of them; and that if I went without them, the wise men of Koondooz would soon find out the contradictions between what I was and what I was said to be. I should be deemed an impostor, and his Highness's business would fare but badly." Dost Mahomed, it appears, had no reply to make to the erudite Khodadad; and therefore sent a certain Kumber Ali Khan in his stead; who, being a Kuzzilbash Shish, was but seurvily treated at the Koon- dooz court. I warned my friend the Moollah not to be too confident : be had twice escaped, but the third appointment might be fatal; and I predicted that, in spite of all his ingenuity, he would yet find himself his country's represen- tative abroad.

AFGHAN PHYSIOGNOMY.

As we sat at the windows and looked out upon the extended prospect, the sun every now and then was hid by clouds; and as their shadows moved across the distant hills, our friends repeatedly exclaimed, " What Sultanut I' what majesty in nature I" with an enthusiasm which would have done honour to European tourists. I must not forget to mention, that on this occasion I was asked as to my knowledge and belief in a science which is called " Kiafa " by the Afghans, and which seems to be something between phrenology and phy- siognomy. Not only the eyebrows, nose, and features generally, but even the beard, form the discriminating marks, instead of the bumps of the skull as with our sapient professors; and the result of experience is recorded in sundry pithy axioms, such as the following—A tall mail with a long beard is a fool; a man with a beard issuing from his throat is a simpleton ; an open forehead be- apelike wealth and plenty. The science is further developed in various couplets, some of the most curious of which may thus be rendered—

He that has red eyes is ever ready to fight : and who has thick lips is a warrior.

Hope for liberality from him whose arms are long : and fear not the courage of one with a thick waist.

Men of small stature are often deceitful: and so are those with deep-seated eyes and thin noses. Those who have soft hair are of good disposition : but those whose locks are hard are otherwise.

Open nostrils are proofs of a tyrant : and large teeth of little wisdom. Large ears give hopes of long life : and spare ankles of activity in the race. The man who has the arch of the foot large cannot walk fdr : but the flat- tened sole tires not.

A CENTRAL ASIATIC POTENTATE.

The Eohanees described the King of Bokhara as having become tyrannous and headstrong : he had degraded his minister, the Koosh Begee, and had re- fused the Hindoos leave to burn their dead, because on being asked their creed, they had said they were " Ibrahamees," or followers of Abraham. He had also, without any show of reason, caused all Mahomedans trading with Hiodoo partners to be doubly taxed. Having discovered an intrigue between a baker's daughter and a Hindoo, he ordered both parties to be baked in the oven, although in his own person he held out the worst possible example to his subjects. It is, however, to be doubted if he is altogether in his senses. His acts of tyranny are ao audacious and so numerous, that I have never ceased to congratulate myself at having passed so successfully through his kingdom. In espionage he appears even to surpass the Chinese. From these men !received an account of the horrid dungeons in Bokhara, known by the title of " Kuna-Khanu "; Kena being the name of the creatures which attach themselves to dogs and sheep, (Anglice, ticks,) and which here thrive on the unhappy human beings who are cast in among them. The dungeons abound also in scorpions, fleas, and all kinds of vermin ; and if human subjects happen to be deficient, goats or tbe entrails of animals are thrown in to feed them ; so that the smell alone is in the highest degree noxious. One day suffices to kill any criminal who is Cast into these horrid dens, and a confinement of a few hours leaves marks Which are never effaced in after-life. The situation of the dungeons is below the ark or citadel in which the King resides.

SIMPLE FEELINGS.

The Rarnazan which had commented with December, was rigidly kept. A gun was fired long before dawn to rouse the faithful from their slumbers, that they might eat before the crier announced the hour of prayer. This fasting had blanched the cheeks of many of my visiters ; and observing this, I asked one of them, a Moollah, "if it was not a severe penance ? " he replied, " No, I am a mere worm, addicted to food; and hence the change which you remark in my countenance." Having upon this incidentally observed, that " all of us would shortly become food for worms," the holy man expressed his un- bounded admiration of this trite truth. I, in my turn, was pleased with an expression which he used when I asked him if he had any children. "Two," was his reply ; "the rest have gone before me." There was a tranquil sorrow and a simphcity in WS manner of saying these few welds which stmck me gLi and futurity form a frequent subject of conversation among the Af- ghans, as indeed they do with all nations. On one occasion I was much in- terested by the discourse of an old merchant, who visited me shortly after he had lost his daughter. In the failure of all medical treatment, he had a few days before her dissolution removed her from her husband's house to his own in tie hope that the air and the climate in which she had been born and reared might restore sinking nature. It was the will of God that it should be otherwise; and the spirit of his child fled while she was repeating some lines from "Musnu- mee," a philosophical poem, which he had taught her in early youth. The last lines she uttered related to eternity. The parent assured me that many circumstances which had occurred subsequently to her death had afforded hint consolation and reconciled him to his loss. One of his neighbours had dreamed that this beloved daughter was remarried and in great prosperity. He himself had dreamed that his forefathers had sent for his daughter and were overjoyed at receiving her. Other circumstances had occurred of a soothing nature : the

i shroud n Mahomedan countries is tied at the head, and when the body is de- posited in the earth it is opened, that the relatives may take the last look and turn the head towards Mecca ; in the case of this young woman, it was found that the face was already turned in the right direction. The priest who had been reading the Koran over the grave had fallen asleep, and dreamed that the deceased had declared herself overjoyed at the happy change. I found that the narrative of all these circumstances received the most serious attention, and thus, dreams and omens working on the father's mind, had yieldel him conso- lation: and why should we deny peace of mind to an afflicted parent by making to destroy their effect ?

• AN AFGHAN ON ANGLO-INDIAN LAW.

An Afghan who had seen India was speaking of our administration of jus- tice; and I endeavoured to gather from him what he considered to be the defects of our Indian rule, as far as they affected his own class, which was that of a merchant. He answered sue, according to the Asiatic fashion, by a proverb- " Give us a new life, and the patience of Job, and then all will be welL" This satire on the tardiness of our courts of justice coming as it does fromfar Ca- bool, may perhaps not be entirely without its effect.

The following passage, relating to the (Jzbeck Tartars, is-from some letters of Dr. LORD, written during his sojourn in Koondooz, and interwoven in the text of BURNES.

UZRECK MATRIMONY.

Jitudad, a Kaboolee Attari, to whom I spoke of the custom of selling wives, which I did not entirely credit, said, "1'11 tell you what happened to myself. I was one day returning from Khanuabid; and, being overtaken by darkness, halted for the night at Turnab, three kos short of this. After feeding my horse and going to the house for shelter, I found three men busily engaged; and, inquiring the subject of their conversation, was told that one of them was selling his wife to the other, but that they had not agreed about terms. Meantime, Khficla Berdi Ming, Bashi and chief of the village, came in and whispered to me that if I could go halves with him, be would purchase the

woman, as he had seen her, and found her very beautifuL I agreed : upon which we purchased her for seventy rupees, thirty-five each ; and she went home with me for that night. Next morning Khfula Berth came and said that partnership in a woman was a bad thing; and asked me how I intended to manage. I said she should stay with me one month, and then go to him next. To that he would by no means agree ; because, if sons or daughters were born, there would be disputes to know to whom they belonged. "In short," said he, "either do you give me five rupees profit on my share and take her altogether, or I will give you the same profit on your share, and she shall be altogether mine." To this latter alternative I consented ; and she is now living with him, as every one well knows.

We will close with a rather mystical passage, not unlike the Delphic responses : the occurrences took place, be it remembered, before the Afghan invasion, perhaps before it was thought of.

"If I had become a convert to the Afghan belief in dreams, I should have had during every week of my residence proofs of our ultimate success and; supremacy in the country ; and it will not perhaps be now read without in- terest, that, on the 17th of January 1838, the ' Meojawar,' or guardian of the tomb of the Emperor Babel-, united upon me and stated, with much solemnity, that he had on the preceding night seen in a dream the Firingees seated on Baber's grave, receiving the salutations of the Afghans.' The ulterior results of our dominion he however, could not precisely tell, as he was unfortunately awakened by the can of the crier for morning prayers. Another Afghan from Candahar, who called upon me one day, said, Yon stand aloof from us, but you will he unable to continue this course : our country is good, but it is without a head ; and, like a beautiful widow, it voluntarily avows her attach- ment to you, and you cannot refuse to accept her as a wife.